


With This Hand

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: Mute Akira [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Mute Akira, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 18:51:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10996854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: I will lift your sorrowsTucked away in his bedroom, just the three of them, Akira teaches sign language.





	With This Hand

**Author's Note:**

> This was requested by @justice-incarn8 over on Tumblr. Super fun to write! Hopefully I did my research right on JSL, but if anyone notices anything that is blatantly wrong, please tell me!
> 
> also yes the title and according summary line is from Corpse Bride shhh
> 
> I do not own _Persona 5_. Thanks for reading, and thanks to my requester! :D :D

“This is friggin’ hard!”

“Nngh…  I’m sorry, I’m not doing good, either.”

Akira huffed out a breath through his nose, drawing his hands up from his knees.

“Oh wait, I know that one.”

“It’s ‘try’!”

A nod. Two fingers held aloft, swiped to the left.

“‘Again’.”

“Show us again.”

It was a process. It always was. It was part of the reason that he hadn’t been prepared to have friends fall into his life so quickly after arriving in Tokyo. That being said… it wasn’t a _bad_ process, much to his surprise.

Sometimes, it was horrible. Sometimes, it was effortless. It definitely wasn’t effortless this time, but Akira found that he didn’t actually mind, in this instance. Probably more than half of that was because he was in good company, no matter how lacking their skills with sign language were.

_Ryuji._

“Wait, that’s my name.” Ryuji straightened up. “Yeah?”

_Copy me._

“Uhh…”

“Copy… I think?”

Akira nodded, and caught himself at the last second to sign _yes_ , too. If they were learning, they might as well have every reminder they could. Then he gestured to himself.

“Copy you, okay, man.”

_Palace._

He signed it twice, and then Ryuji mimicked it.

_To go._

Again.

_I want._

Again.

And strung together. _I want to go to the Palace._

Ryuji forgot the sign for _go_ , and Akira had to wave both hands at him to get his attention to show him again. It was quickly dissolving into frustration on both of his friend’s accounts, he could tell. He didn’t want it to. They really weren’t doing so bad of a job. It wasn’t like he was trying to teach them particularly _normal_ things to sign, anyway.

Despite the hiccups, Ryuji did manage it.

_Good!_

_Thanks_ , Ryuji signed back, and Akira might have never been so proud.

“So what did I just say?”

Akira had to pick up his phone to give him the proper response, but that too was a small price to pay for the undivided attention he was getting. _I want to go to the Palace_ , he typed, and then quickly went back to spelling with his hands.

_Yuuki._

“Oh, yes!” Mishima leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “I’m ready. Are you going to teach me what you just taught him?”

_No._

“Oh.”

He sounded dejected, and Akira couldn’t help but laugh. _Don’t worry, this is specific to you._

Out of the two of them, Mishima was more perceptive. He was picking it up faster than Ryuji. Still, what Ryuji lacked in memory, he made up for in technique. Mishima’s signing tended to look more awkward, sometimes a bit sloppy; Akira himself didn’t mind, exactly, because he could ask for clarification if the signs weren’t distinctive enough, but it was something he needed to work on.

Weaknesses and strengths. But they both definitely knew how to spell their names, and they knew how to respond to basic questions and greetings. Since they had moved on to Phantom Thieves talk, Akira didn’t think it was important to grill them quite as hard.

“Don’t worry… just for me?”

 _Yes_.

“Oh, cool!”

_You need to get some rest._

“You need… to…” Mishima caught the last of the signing, sighing as he sat up straight again. “That’s not funny.”

_What?_

“‘You need to sleep’,” Mishima repeated, and his lips turned down into a frown. “I do sleep.”

_When you’re not busy working for us every night. Forget the anon spam and let us deal with them._

“I don’t know what you said.”

 _I’m pretty sure you do._ Akira grinned ruefully and went back to the actual lesson. _Seriously now, watch._

“Fine.”

Akira signed out _website_ , _how_ , and then got as far as spelling out _P-H_ before Mishima made a noise of recognition and gave him the last two letters himself. _A-N_ , and then even quicker, even messier, _P-H-A-N_. “Right??”

Akira nodded. _How is the Phan-site?_

“Oh, I got this! I can remember this. Hang on, let me actually answer.” Mishima went flipping through some pages sitting on the table nearby– both of them had been taking notes, even Ryuji, and Akira had to admit that he was kind of impressed. Then Mishima was hurriedly signing something along the lines of _It’s been busy, but I’m keeping an eye on it_. Except it didn’t exactly _say_ that. Those _hands_ … there was such a thing as too much enthusiasm. Mishima continued to be way too excited. He really did need to watch that.

Akira pushed himself up from the edge of the bed, going to join them on the sofa. He took Mishima’s hands, smiling encouragingly at the confused noise, and firmly but gently manipulated them into the positions that they should be in.

“Ugh…! Am I not… what’s the sign language equivalent of enunciating? I’m not doing it right again, am I?”

 _You’re just a little excited_ , he signed. _You need to take it slow._

“Oh… I’m sorry, Akira-kun…”

Akira shook his head. _You’re fine._

“I’m not, though, you’ve told me this like five times and I can’t get it right.”

“At least you remember this stuff.” Ryuji groaned, slumping forward again. “I suck at it all.”

Quickly descending into self deprecating agitation.

 _No, it’s fine._ When that took too long and Ryuji hadn’t even looked up, Akira grabbed his phone again. _You guys are doing great. This isn’t exactly standard JSL here, anyway._

“Should still be better at it,” Mishima muttered. “I _am_ going to be better at it! I’ll have a whole conversation with you in sign language!”

So their attempts were clumsy. But Akira hadn’t been teaching them for very long, and he was dumping a lot of Phantom Thieves specific signs on them all at once. They were doing surprisingly well. Well… well enough. He knew how frustrating it could be, from both sides of it, but honestly rather than being irritated with them, he just… thought it was kind of endearing. They were both trying so hard. And this was Mishima, the boy who barely slept for trying to promote the Phantom Thieves, and this was Ryuji, who was studying JSL to communicate with him more than he was studying English for schoolwork.

Akira didn’t exactly know how to prove it to them that they were doing okay, they were doing great, that he was _not_ disappointed, but. He really was happy. Something that had been sparing as of late.

“Hey.” Ryuji nudged Mishima, leaning back into the sofa. “Put your good memory and my good form together and we’d be able to have a perfect conversation, huh?

“I wish it was that easy…”

 _You both are doing good,_ Akira texted, but when neither of them looked up from their phone looking any happier, it was time to take matters into his own hands. Or, well, out of his hands, since his hands didn’t seem to be getting anything done in this instance.

So he leaned over to press a kiss to Mishima’s temple, and reached over to curl his hand around Ryuji’s neck to pull him in to kiss his cheek. They were both doing fine. He didn’t mouth it; they weren’t looking. He didn’t sign it; his hand was on Ryuji’s neck and around Mishima’s shoulders and they were both melting into him and he just didn’t want to move.

They were more than good.

Mishima chuckled, his head coming to pillow on Akira’s shoulder. “Well, maybe it isn’t so bad if this is the reaction we get out of it.”

“No kidding, I think I’m down for this.”

Akira squeezed both of their shoulders briefly, and then pulled away. As much as he didn’t want to. It would be getting dark soon and they would have to catch their trains. And they still had some things do tonight, if they could manage to get it done.

_You both don’t realize how cute you are._

“Cute? Aww man.” Ryuji rubbed the back of his head. “I’m not sure I wanna be cute…”

“I’ll take cute!”

_Cute is good. I fell for cute._

“So did I.”

Ryuji groaned, shoulder slumping against Mishima’s. “You two are so sappy.”

“Are you kidding me? You fell for cute, too!”

“Yeah, but I don’t go ‘round saying it out loud!!”

Akira chuckled, taking up his seat on the bed again. It was true. They really didn’t know how absolutely endearing they were. They didn’t have to learn to sign and they were. They were nowhere near as horrible as they thought, and watching them interact with both him and each other was worth all of this even without including all their progress.

It was why, despite the difficulties, Akira continued to look forward to teaching them.

Mishima looked away from Ryuji. His attention went back at Akira. “Back to work?”

Akira nodded. _Yeah. Ready?_

 _Ready!_ Mishima signed.

 _Yes,_ Ryuji gestured.

Akira beamed at both of them. Passed the palm of his right hand over the back of his left. Ryuji and Mishima both beamed back at him.

His favorite people to teach. That would never change.

**Author's Note:**

> [That last sign is a way to say, of course, 'I love you']


End file.
